


Our Newborn Queen

by RobinWritesChirps



Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Reality, Babies, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 07:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25466740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinWritesChirps/pseuds/RobinWritesChirps
Summary: Lex, Hannah, Tim and their young brother meet their new sibling for the first time − the last addition to the family.Family fluff :) There’s an alternate reality where they’re now a (COMPLETE) family.
Relationships: Becky Barnes & Lex Foster, Becky Barnes/Tom Houston
Comments: 17
Kudos: 10





	Our Newborn Queen

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Our Newborn King](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24898903) by [RobinWritesChirps](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinWritesChirps/pseuds/RobinWritesChirps). 



> lmao cringe fest is back, hope you enjoy

Tom and Becky’s daughter showed her pretty pink face just before spring was over, right at the cusp of summer and the air was just a touch too hot under the sun. She was a herald of even better days to come.

Becky’s contractions started in the morning but it took a few hours of incremented intensity both in duration and pain levels for her to allow Tom to drive her to the birth center, which he had been begging since the early start. What with him being a family man through and through, Lex had not often been left on her own with all three siblings and she hoped Becky would have to forgive her for pumping her baby brother with sugary snacks, and then chicken nuggets for lunch for she was in no mood to cook anything that couldn’t be microwaved instead. Nicholas was in such excellent mood he seemed barely to notice his parents’ absence all day and at less than two years of age, Lex did not think he really understood her when she read out the texts Tom sent every couple of hours to update the kids at home of the bloody show at the birth center.

They had set out a kiddie pool in the backyard where Nicholas and a much too old Tim now bathed and splashed each other together to cool down in a sea of squeaky bath toys. Hannah was reading under the shade of an old umbrella, with Lex petting her hair and making sure the boys were not drowning. Not the day for any funky accident, she thought and watched closely − and wondered when she had become such a stickler for safety. They ate popsicles and talked about their hopes and fears for the baby to come. They would never again know life as it was between four siblings up to today but, Lex thought, if they had made it thus far without killing each other, then surely adding another baby to the bunch wouldn’t be too bad. It would give the toddler someone to play with, trapped between an elder sister who was old enough to be his mother and two tweens generally more interested in the upcoming challenges of middle school than in playing with cubes and plushies.

"Do you have news?" Tim asked every so often when he took a break to oil up his brother and himself with a thick layer of sunscreen − it was Becky’s rule and it was only sensible. "Has he sent anything yet?"

Lex repeated to him the latest news whenever he would ask and Tim nodded with a grin and went back to entertaining the little boy at his side. The afternoon stretched into a languid evening and Tim enjoyed the last rays of sunshine from his towel laid out on the grass while Lex took the rest of the brood back inside, trying to scrub Nicholas as clean as he would allow her without too many wails of protest – as in most things, Becky was his greatest favorite when it came to be bathed and he showed a complete lack of interest in being cared for so by his sister. When she came back to the living room, Hannah has finished her book and was playing on her tablet instead, snuggled up all cozy in the couch. Tim came back inside just in time for the pizza Lex ordered, which they ate without napkins and with their feet on the coffee table − or lodged underneath it in Nicholas’s case.

"Are we like, gonna sleep?" Tim asked when the warm almost-summer evening had weighed on them and they sprawled lethargically on the couches. The pizza box was laying empty on the floor. "I don't wanna miss it if dad texts or calls us."

Lex glanced at Nicholas nestled in her arms. He was a soft little guy, all cuddles and smiles most of the time. His eyes were heavy with exhaustion but he kept waking himself up every time he dozed off, sensing the exceptional situation of this evening somehow. She could feel that he was starting to miss his parents a little bit and was clingier for it. She gladly gave the embrace wanted in return.

"One of us will," she said with certainty. "Do what the eff you want, dude, I’m not gonna tuck you in."

Cursing had been banned from the household − another one of Becky’s rules, though this one was broken most often by Tom himself. In the end, there was no telling if they slept or not, so intermittent the waiting and the snoozing. Nicholas alone was sleeping soundly, though he woke up startled when Lex’s phone finally lit with a phone call and she sat up to take it on speaker. It was the early morning and sun light was veering through the blinds.

"Hey," Tom said in a deep voice raspy with tiredness, "Come and see the baby, guys, she’s so beautiful."

She looked at Hannah staring intently at the phone, sitting right on the edge of her seat, Tim just as eager next to her still wearing yesterday’s swimming trunks. She smiled.

"A’ight, we’ll be right over. How’s mom?"

It hadn’t been an easy or quick switch to start calling her so. Only in the past few months, hearing Tom and Becky refer to each other as ’Mom’ and ’Dad’ for Nicholas’s little ears still learning to speak, had Lex and Hannah and, timidly, Tim started to call them the same. Tom and Becky had only acknowledged it with smiles that betrayed how touched they were, but as neither side had wanted to make a big deal out of it, the transition had simply ran its course quite smoothly. Eighteen years of having called another her mother or father changed little to who would fill in that part for the rest of Lex's life.

"Tired," he said and she could hear the smile in his voice. "Happy. The baby's been born for a few hours, Becky’s had a nap, but they're ready to see you guys now. Hey, come quick, alright?"

"Coming quick!"

"See you in a bit," he said, "And be careful on the road."

"Will do," she replied and hung up.

Preparations were as refined as shoving Tim towards his closet to grab a shirt and a pair of shorts and wiping clean Nicholas's mouth before packing all of them in her car. Hannah's legs were bouncing the entire ride to the center and Tim was talking happily to his brother who, however much he understood, gave sparse responses from his car seat, not even his baby ramblings. He was more fussy by the minute, possibly the longest day without Becky he had ever known, and Tim tried his best to cheer him up the entire drive to little avail.

"Hey buds," Tom greeted them warmly in the hall. He took each of them in his arms, kissing their hair, including Nicholas who looked at him with hopeful wide eyes, like he had not seen him in an eternity of anguish instead of just a day and a night. "Be kinda quiet if you can, Becky's really exhausted but she'll pretend she's fine, alright? So be good."

Lex thought only Tim would have deserved the warning, but she and Hannah nodded too anyways and Tom led them to the room where rested his wife and child. She was sitting on the bed, cradling the baby in her arms when they entered, and so tired she took a couple of seconds to look up and notice them. Wrinkled eyes and her hair up in a messy ponytail, she was wearing one of Tom’s old t-shirts.

"Everyone washes their hands," Tom ordered before greetings could even be exchanged and Tim and Hannah ran to the bathroom – water ran and splashed through the wall in the next breath.

Nicholas was squirming impatiently in Lex’s arms, leaning over so intently she was afraid he would fall as he reached for his mother. Tom grinned at the sight.

"Mama," the boy babbled, who was a little shy of disposition and not yet particularly chatty − Lex could well wait for that to come, as there was rather enough of Tim already, whom you could always trust to keep his mouth open and jabbering at all times.

He held up his chubby little arms to Becky, whose hands were already quite full with the newborn. She made to hand her to Tom but Hannah sprang from behind Lex to step in between.

"Can I hold her?" She asked, showing off her very clean hands.

Becky smiled. There was indeed a particular tiredness over her that Lex had only seen once before. Unless there was a third baby some day, she didn’t think she would see it again. Gently, the baby was passed from her arms to Hannah's. She was used to it somewhat by now, to what it was like to hold a fragile little thing in her arms, for she had been a devoted sister to Nicholas already. She had enjoyed it more than anyone had imagined she would.

"Shh," she muttered softly to the baby, as if she could foresee her fussing before she ever did. "Here."

She kissed the baby's little head, snuggling her close and Tim gave her the armchair to sit in so that they could both dote on her at the same time. Lex dropped Nicholas in his mother's now free arms and at once he stopped wriggling or whining, only holding snug onto her and receiving many sweet words in return for the embrace. She took a chair next to Tom, who wrapped an arm around her shoulders to pull her close and Lex let herself be coddled into his fatherly affection overflowing this early morning.

"We've called her Rose," Becky said. "After Tom's grandmother. Another Rose Houston."

Hannah nodded, as if this was some info that locked in with what she already knew rather than something all new. Tim was tickling the baby without much reaction, as the baby had her eyes closed tight for the moment.

"And because she’s a precious little flower," he said, all baby talk. "Aren’t you, baby?"

Tom glanced at Becky and they had some silent discussion that concluded in a nod at each other and Becky turned to them.

"She didn’t pass the hearing screening," she said simply.

Lex tried to decipher Becky’s own opinion on this, though there was always a thick layer of courtesy to pierce through and it wasn’t easy too see her true feelings on anything when she wanted them hidden. Nicholas had fallen asleep in her arms, his head pressed against her chest as she caressed his thin wavy hair. Hannah was looking at Tim, who was looking at Becky.

"What does that mean?" He asked, frowning.

Tom passed a hand through his hair nervously.

"They think she could be deaf or hard of hearing," he said. "We'll come back when she's a few months old to check for sure but that's what they're saying so far."

Hannah traced the shape of Rose’s little ears with the tip of a finger. Awe more than any sorrow was plastered all over her face and Lex pulled out her phone from her pocket. Tom looked over her shoulder.

" _What I wish my hearing parents had done for me growing up_ … Shit, you’re smart."

"I know some ASL already," Becky said. She laid back more comfortably, taking the boy with her to make room for both on the bed, and kissed the top of his head. "So does Hannah. There’ll be that."

"Well, obviously we’ll all learn," Lex said. "Wait, is there sign language on Duolingo? We’ll find something else if not, YouTube or whatever."

Tom pulled a chair to look at the posts Lex was finding. Opinions seemed to be as diverse as the deaf people writing them but there were some common guidelines that seemed to converge somewhat. If he had been worried, he was soothed a little by the research but chief of all by the many looks he kept throwing at Rose just across the room. The sight of her so cherished by Tim and Hannah was surely very reassuring. Any challenge that could emerge was nothing they couldn’t handle as a family.

"Well," he said eventually, crossing the room to crouch in front of his daughter to stroke her face gently, "She’s healthy. She’s fed great, she’s in all the good percentiles. And she’s in good hands."

He turned back to Becky.

"Right, babe?"

But they all noticed only then that Becky had fallen asleep briefly after her son had and the slumbering pair was well past the point of conversation, even one sided. Tom’s face softened and he stood again, gesturing to the kids to put the baby down in her bassinet.

"I’ll go grab breakfast," he told Lex, whispering. "With the kids, but I’ll bring some for you and Becky. Do you mind staying here?"

She shook her head and sent them on their way, and they had barely closed the door behind them that she heard Tim burst out in adoration for the new baby, how tiny and pretty she was. There was, Lex supposed, something really cute about any baby, how squished down they were compared to the average human. Leaning over the bassinet, she looked at baby Rose. Her eyes were closed but they opened at her touch and she was staring at Lex’s face when she picked her up and sat on the armchair in the quiet room. Becky’s deep breath told everything of how much she had needed the rest.

"So you’re the new sheriff in town, huh?"

The girl stared and it was only when Lex started playing with her hands that she showed more reaction, wrapping her tiny fist around Lex’s thumb. She thought of Hannah. She smiled.

"That’s alright, there’s room for one more" she said softly and tried to match her words with a gentle squeeze of the baby against her to try and convey some pleasant meaning to the words if the baby couldn’t hear her tone of voice − and if perhaps she could, then all the better. "Welcome, buddy. You’re gonna love dad, he’s been talking about you for months. You’ll have him wrapped right around your little finger."

She clasped her hand around Rose’s − how warm her skin, a fuzzy peach. She was a pretty little thing. Still very pink in the face, it was hard to tell whose parent she resembled most aside from the nose which was all Houston, and her eyes were pale gray and had something serious to them too.

"And you’re gonna love mom, she’s the best person you’ll ever meet in your life. She’s gonna love you so much you’re gonna be smothered with it, little baby. Hope you don’t choke on it."

The other hand was trying to reach out to something in the air − Lex vaguely remembered Becky telling her about a newborn’s vision range but she had forgotten it as soon as that and she didn’t know if the baby was truly looking at her. What mattered was that she felt like she was. What mattered was how soothed she was by this feather weight in her arms, a plump little loaf of bread that drooled and squirmed and after some time began to fuss a little.

"Ah, shit."

Perhaps from the outburst, though Lex preferred to believe that the mere sound of the baby squealing uncomfortably was what had woken her up, Becky sat up, blinking several times to reorient herself. She held up her arms for Lex to pass her the baby and she put her at her breast to try and soothe her. This was thankfully the right choice, the craving that needed met, and the room was quiet again. Nicholas stretched his little arms and rearranged himself on the bed next to them, sucking in his thumb.

"Where’s Tom?" Becky asked, her voice still sore.

"He’s gone out to get breakfast. I think he won’t be too long."

Becky nodded, her eyes fixed on the child feeding in her arms, all awe. She brushed the thin head of hair, which was the same reddish brown as Rose’s brothers, as her father.

"Do you want all the gory details?"

Lex laughed at how acutely the question clashed with the soft motherly picture Becky presented otherwise. She sat on the side of the bed, dangling her legs.

"Only the main strokes," she smirked.

Becky returned the smile. It was strange how perfectly she balanced this, so completely mother-like to all five of them and yet one of the closest friends Lex had ever had.

"It was worse than the first time," Becky said, though she reached back to tickle gentle fingers at Nicholas’s temple so as not to upset him by the words he likely didn’t really understand. "By far. I tore and everything, I thought she’d never actually get out and I’d just be pregnant forever."

"And she’d cozy up in there indefinitely," Lex said, though she put a hand at Becky’s calf to show she was mindful of what she was saying beyond the joke. "Not a bad life plan."

Becky snorted, very happy no matter how tired and sore she was too. Suddenly she hissed and moved Rose’s face a little.

"Also it hurts like hell when she feeds, I’ll have to get like a consultant if it doesn't get better, she’s gonna rip my boobs out."

"She’s a fierce one," Lex said. "Like mama, like daughter."

Becky smiled. She reached out to try and hold Lex’s hand, who scooted closer to allow it.

"Or like sister."

"Well, I don’t think that’s how genes work."

But Becky stroked a thumb across her palm and she didn’t protest the compliment any further. They looked at the baby. She was wearing some onesie that had used to belong to Nicholas, which had been a hand-me-down in the first place and there was a red stain on the brownish gray fabric that had never gone away from a previous owner. Lex wondered how many more babies would wear it and if any of them would be Houstons. If not this generation, then another.

"She was tough in the womb, too," Becky said with admiration. "She kept kicking every night, she would only stop when Tom touched my belly."

"Finally, a kid you’ll make a jock of," Lex joked, but Becky shook her head.

"No," she said softly, "We won’t make her into anything. She can be whatever she wants."

Lex hesitated a little. She entwined her fingers with Becky's.

"Are you worried about the deaf thing?"

Becky didn't immediately reply. She smiled at her younger daughter, then at her older one.

"Not at all," she said and there was no hesitation in her voice, not even mild. "I think Tom's having a harder time, he's not used to... things changing."

Nicholas was sitting up slowly and seemed for the first time to notice the new addition to the family. Perhaps for this cause, perhaps because he was in a room he didn't know and tired from a long night of waiting around, he was more shy than usual and buried his face into his mother's side. Becky kept him there and leaned to kiss his little curly head again.

"Though they have already," she said wistfully, staring at the boy. "So much and not just once."

The baby was done feeding. Becky was so smooth about everything, how naturally she felt it and put her at her shoulder to burp her, how gently she handled the baby like she had done it a million times before in just her first day of existence on the surface of this earth. There had been her brother before, there had been some level of caring for infants at work, but still she glided through motherhood like the best, sunniest sail one could have fathomed. Lex had not known how much she had craved that, even just witnessing it.

"I think Hannah will love it," Lex said after some time. "She already loves how quiet dad is, I think she'll enjoy having someone who will never want her to talk. And she’ll love to learn to sign even better, she’s always wanted to be fluent, this’ll give her the motivation."

"Well, we don't know how quiet Rosie will be," Becky said. She was swaddling the baby on her lap, an expert by now. "I guess she won't be another chatterbox like Tim, but she could be something else."

She turned to Nicholas, who was slowly warming up to his surroundings. He scrubbed his eyes and she smiled down at him, touched his hair as she spoke.

"Hey baby," she said and the boy's little face lit up with a big smile. From the start Becky had been his favorite of the family and he was too young to hide his preference, much less when his father wasn't around to feel slighted. "You remember your baby sister we told you about?"

"Yeah!" He said, although Lex was more or less certain he remembered no such thing and was simply trying to be good.

"Her name is Rosie, do you wanna touch her and say hi?"

"Yeah!" He repeated in his little chirp of a voice − tough or not herself, Lex had adored the little guy with all her heart from the start.

Becky showed him how to be gentle and touch Rose’s head without being too rough. He was so entranced with the newness of it all and with how quiet Rosie was being that he never paused and took the time to feel jealous.

"Oh, you’re awake," Tom said as he pushed the door very carefully. Much more at ease, he held is open for Tim and Hannah who were each munching on waffles he had bought for everyone. "Here you go."

He put down the boxes on Becky’s side table. He had gotten her favorite topping and Becky wouldn’t have looked more enamored if he had gotten her something fancy from a five star hotel instead.

"Thank you, Tom."

He kissed the top of her head and leaned there to look at the two younger kids meeting each other for the first time. When Nicholas spotted the food, however, his focus was lost for good and the baby sister was forgotten at the present. Lex snorted. That, she supposed, was the way of things as well.

Becky stayed a few days at the birth center, enough that she was somewhat recovered by the time she could come home, not enough that she didn’t still need a nap or two every day at the same time as the kids. The whole family had done a lot more research since the birth and Tim had learned a few sentences he kept signing to little Rosie as if, sign or sound, the newborn girl would understand a thing. Hannah, as Lex had predicted, was particularly keen on her and had taken to reading or playing next to her baby seat in the living room just to enjoy her presence. Tom was already looking into safety measures and whether it could be okay to keep the baby around the workshop if further tests confirmed that she indeed had no hearing to further damage.

In confidence, Becky had told Lex that she and Tom had discussed the state of their family and were not planning on another baby, already looking into more permanent solutions of contraception. Five were enough, she said. If Lex had any say in the situation, five of them and the two parents completing the picture was more than enough. It was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment!!!


End file.
